


An Agent Of In-Decision

by GachMoBrea



Series: Donald Ressler-Reddington Series [3]
Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: "The Cyprus Agency", + Canon Compliant Scenes, AU, Adoption Doubts, Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Episode Related, Gen, Nothing TOO Deep, Or is it Episode Tag?, Reddington is Ressler's Dad, S01E13, The Keen Family Troubles are Background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 23:13:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7660843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent Keen deals with "The Cyprus Agency"... <br/>In the end, she discovers the reason behind Reddington's almost cold behavior towards the updates she keeps giving him about Ressler (his son). </p><p>{STILL bad at Summaries. STILL don't know what to put here. STILL trying to figure out how I want to write this Series.}<br/>{STILL very sorry for the Tom-foolery. Haha...Pun... *Tom doesn't actually do much in this story...}</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Agent Of In-Decision

"The Cyprus Agency"

\---

Tom & Liz watch the sonogram video...  
After thinking about it all night, Liz finds herself wanting to start a family. To be closer to her husband. To have a family of her own. Regardless of what Reddington says.  
"We're going to be parents," Tom smiles at her.   
She feels like the luckiest woman in the world.

-

Liz meets Red in another church where they're showing some sort of video...  
"There's nothing more profound and of lasting consequence than the decision to have a child," the criminal informant starts, eyes looking straight forwards to the video he has no interest in. "The exploitation and perversion of that decision is the stock and trade of a truly evil organization."  
As Reddington speaks, Liz's mind thinks of how convenient this little case is since Liz JUST decided to go through with taking in her own little one.  
"The Cyprus Adoption Agency." Not hers then. At least there's that.  
And agency that steals kids and adopts them out to new parents.  
"I assumed that, since I'm not really your daughter, that you'd stop pushing yourself into my life," Liz puts the papers back into the folder carefully, anger tingling just under her skin. "Am I to assume you just came across this little case against adoption?"  
"I have nothing against adoption, Lizzie," Red smirks. "I just don't condone the trade of children. I would have thought you, of all people, would want to put a stop to this."  
"Of course I want to stop this," the agents hisses back, anger boiling over slightly. "I just think it a little too convenient."  
"Life is full of little ironies."

\- 

Liz goes to the prospective parents. They agree to help.  
"What do you want us to do?"

They set up a sting. Liz and Ressler hold their positions outside with their backup, across the street from where the couple is talking to the 'lawyer'.  
Theodore Caldwell gets antsy. Goes outside. He walks in front of a bus before he tells Liz anything about the agency.   
But what has the agent the most confused is: why was he so surprised to hear about the abductions?

\- 

They collect DNA to test, to see if the kids match any cases of abduction.

Liz meets Red, "This is going to be my last case for a while. I want to spend some time with the baby."  
At the man's look of disapproval, she adds, "I can still be your daughter without running around with a badge on my hip."  
"Meera Malik was the one who signed the order to allow the enemy to get their hands on the blueprints for the Office, but she wasn't the one who sold us out," Red says instead of countering the agents words. "Now she's on our side. Well, just the side to find out who the mole is."  
"Meera?" Liz frowns. "That's what you found out after going through all that shredded paper?"  
Red nods, "You can't let on that you know, of course. But," he grins. "I did promise to tell you."  
"Thank you for that," the agent returns the smile. Her phone goes off and she looks at the message on it, "Looks like we got our warrant. I'll see you later, Reddington."

\- 

They go directly to the agency to see what they can find.  
Which is nothing.

The DNA results turn up the same frustrating amount of nothing.

"Run it again," Red tells her when she meets up with him again to talk about the case. "Don't look for an exact match."  
'Look to see if they're offspring of criminals,' Liz understands with a nod. She walks away to leave when her criminal informant speaks up again.  
"You can't adopt if there is doubt in your mind about your husband," Red tells her. "If there is just one shred-"  
"There isn't," she cuts him off, firmly, resuming her walk out.  
"I don't trust a man who doesn't have any secrets."  
Liz halts once again in her steps and turns back to Reddington, "Excuse me?"  
"I did a background check on Tom," he tells her calmly. "There was nothing to find except for what he told you."  
"Because that's who he is."  
"The perfect man for you who just shows up and warms his way into your heart?" Red scoffs with a light laugh. "Now what's convenient?"  
"You think he's a plant? Why? Because I like him?"  
Reddington shakes his head sadly, before turning kind eyes to the agent.  
"Remember who they think you are, Lizzie. Remember who you said you would be."  
"I do. And I also remember who I am."  
Liz walks away.

\- 

Back at the Office, they get a DNA hit. Not because the mothers are criminals.   
It's because the women were reported missing.  
The kids weren't stolen. The MOTHERS were.

\- 

Aram uncovers a possible next target for the agency: Charlotte Patterson.

Ressler and Liz make it to the school, but Charlotte's already out of class.  
They head to the parking garage and Ressler sees her car and head over to it. There's a van parked right next to the blue car and Liz's parter pulls his weapon as he orders whoever's inside to get out.  
Instead of listening to the order, the driver backs the van into Ressler, hitting him in his bad leg. Ressler falls to the ground and the van's tires screech as it accelerates forwards and away.  
Liz gets a hit in the back window, but the perp still gets away. With the girl.  
Liz calls in the license plate and makes it to Ressler as he hops back to his feet.  
"You okay?" she asks, worry spiking as her partner clutches at his leg tightly.  
"Yeah, just," he growls through a bout of pain. "Just my leg."  
"You need a hand?" she offers him her shoulder but he waves off the offer with a smile.  
"I'll be fine," he hobbles over to the metal railing to rest...

As they wait for the scene to be processed, Liz calls Reddington.  
"Ressler got hit by the abductor's van," he tells him quietly, then assures quickly, "but he's fine. It was in his bad leg, so he's favoring it again, but I don't think it'll be anything worse then a sort spot for a few hours."  
"I'm sorry you couldn't get to the girl fast enough, Lizzie," the criminal offers just as quietly. "I have complete faith that you'll be able to find her."  
Liz blinks at her cell as the dial tone comes through the receiver.  
Red is still acting weird when she mentions Ressler.

\- 

Back at the Office, they go over the case.  
"Kate Ellison" has been found in the woods by a man and his dog.  
When Ressler and Liz go to see the coroner who did the autopsy, he tells them the victim hasn't been moving around in years, but still gave birth.  
Someone was feeding her what she needed while keeping her in a coma.

\- 

Liz meets with the suspect's parents.  
As they talk about their adopted son, the problems they had, and how they "weren't ready"...It feels to Liz like everything and everyone is pointing to her and Tom not being ready either. Could Reddington be manipulating things to keep Liz "on task"? Without distractions? Even she didn't think he had that kind of reach.  
And yet she can't stop the doubt from creeping in her mind.

\- 

Liz calls Red to get help tracking "Hydroxipam" but the man instead gives her an address to meet him at.  
When they go inside the building, Liz wonders if the man was incapable of doing things normally. He brought her to a frat party?  
She follows Red to meet Russel. Where she learns, or thinks she learns, that Red was in a desert two years ago on his way to Tuba City in search of Navajo tacos.  
Even though the atmosphere goes against many aspects of the law, the drug-king teen still gets them the information they need.  
A fertility doctor prescribing sleep aide that keeps you under longer than you need? Bingo.

\- 

"Galatea Fertility Clinic"

The man at the desk is all fake smiles and pleasantries. When he lies about Hadley, Liz and Ressler move passed him to find the doc themselves. Then Mr. Fake tries to pull a gun, but Ressler catches him and bends the man over the desk in an arm lock.  
"Find Hadley."

Liz finds the room with all the missing women. Her stomach churns. It's like a pregnancy farm.   
As the agent looks at the scene in shock, one of the beds moves. She turns to it, then is surprised by the suspect (Michael Shaw). They get into a scuffle. The suspect pushes one of the women onto Liz, pinning her down. He gets to her gun and points it at her.  
A shot rings out, hitting the man in the arm.   
"Keen!" Ressler saved Liz.  
"I'm okay," she tells him. Even though she just got over a near-death experience, Liz can't help but focus more on the unconscious woman still connected to the machines...  
"Call it in."

\- 

After the others have walked away from Liz, she gives Rddington another call.  
"We got him, the man behind The Cyprus Agency, Michael Shaw," she smiles. "You know who saved me from a bullet. He also got the doctor who was impregnating the women. He won't be doing anything to anyone, anymore."   
"I knew you could do it, Lizzy," Red's grumbly voice sounds pleased to hear the news but, once again, the criminal doesn't make comment on Ressler's involvement. "Perhaps I'll see you tomorrow?"  
"Yeah," Liz draws out the word, head spinning with too many thoughts at once.  
Before she can think of anything else to say, Reddington hangs up.

\- 

Back in the interview room, Michael Shaw happily tells Liz about his "Legacy".  
ALL the children were sired by the suspect.

\- 

Liz goes home. She stares at the sonogram as she relives the events of the day in her mind.   
Children were precious. Special. They deserved to be happy and in a happy home.  
When Tom gets home an hour later, the agent has already decided against the adoption.  
"What's wrong?" he looks at her just as lost as she feels.  
"I can't do it." And she really can't. Every part of her that wants that tiny human in the video is just as determined to keep it away. "Something is...broken."  
Tom doesn't understand, so he leaves.

-

After a few hours of crying her eyes out, Liz pulls herself together and feels the desperate NEED to talk to someone.  
Unable to think of anyone else to call, Liz contacts Reddington.

The criminal informant arrives at her house a half hour later and sits on the couch next to her.  
"I take it you and Tom decided against rushing into parenthood?" Red starts the conversation quietly, removing his hat and placing it on the side table.  
"You got your wish, Reddington," Liz smiles humorlessly. "There won't be any little Keen's running around to distract me from my job as your fake daughter."  
"Your willingness to help me goes beyond my meagre words of thanks, Lizzy," the criminal leans forward to rest his arms on his knees. "I don't want you to be unhappy. That's not why I'm here," he shakes his head slightly. "It's also not my wish for you to be robbed the chance of being a mother, either," He looks her in the eyes so that she can see the honesty in them, "I just don't trust the man you want to raise that child with."  
"Who're you to judge who can and cannot be a father?" Liz's anger flares at the calm face staring at her. "You are Ressler's father and yet whenever I reach out to you to tell you something that's happened to him..."   
She shakes hands in frustration, "It's like you don't even care!"  
"I appreciate all that you're doing, Lizzy," Red smirks kindly at her. "But you don't have to keep tabs on Donald for me."  
"But I want to," she frowns. "Wouldn't you rather know what's going on with him first-hand? Or," she leans forwards to rest her elbows on them, a mirror of the man sitting beside her. "You have no interest in being close to him at all. Do you?"  
Red looks away, runs his tongue over the bottom of his teeth before looking back at the agent. He doesn't answer her question.  
Which is answer enough.  
"You claim to care about him," Liz's anger flares again. "You want to keep him 'safe'," she nearly spits the word, but manages to keep it in the same monotone she started with. "But he's less of a son to you and more of a possession."  
Shaking her head she gets to her feet. Watery eyes stare at the baby crib because she can't stand to look at the man in the same room as her.   
"There's not a fatherly bone in your body."

Reddington clears his throat. Lizzy turns her head so that she can see enough of him through her peripheral vision to know where he is.   
"Lizzy," he stops, clears his throat again. "I haven't been a father in many," he sighs, "many years."  
"So it's okay to stop now?" she whispers back, keeping her voice calm instead of shouting.  
"Donald had a father," Red states simply. "One he cared about very much. One I am hesitant to replace because I do not think myself an adequate stand-in for a man who fought for all the things our young agent holds dear."  
Reddington stand as his words sink in. Lizzy blinks away the thought of tears as she looks into his eyes. Eyes that are remarkably open and hurting.  
"I will not tarnish the name of Ressler's father," the criminal shakes his head once. "I will not throw young Donald into the affairs of my business. The whole point," he lifts his hands to his waist to gesticulate. "of me working with the FBI is to keep him from ever knowing about my connection to him."  
Liz feels her eyes widening in realization. Quietly she asks what she already knows the answer to, "So, he's never going to know?"  
The criminal smiles warmly to the female agent, flipping his hat to place it back on his head, "Not if I can help it."

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing. Nada. Zilch. (Which includes the NON-ownership of "The Blacklist", its episodes, or its characters.)


End file.
